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Revision as of 20:37, 27 January 2013 by Musician's muse (talk | contribs) (→Education and career)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Zoë Baird | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1952-06-20) June 20, 1952 (age 72) Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley UC Berkeley School of Law |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, Philanthropist |
Zoë Eliot Baird (born June 20, 1952) is an American lawyer who is president of the Markle Foundation. She is known for her role in the Nannygate matter of 1993, which arose when she was nominated by President Bill Clinton as the first woman to be Attorney General of the United States but withdrew her nomination because of a controversy surrounding the nanny she hired. In the last 15 years, she has led the Markle Foundation which has worked primarily through task forces to achieve broad laws that modernize sectors like health care and the national security community.
Education and career
Baird earned an A.D. with a joint degree in political science and communications and public policy, Phi Betta Kappa, in 1974 from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a J.D. in 1977 from the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. Baird clerked for U.S. District Judge Albert C. Wollenberg from 1977 to 1978 and worked as Attorney-Advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1979 to 1980.
Baird was a partner at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, Washington, DC from 1981 to 1986. She was counselor and staff executive at General Electric from 1986 to 1990. She was counselor and staff executive at General Electric from 1986 to 1990. Baird was senior vice president and general counsel of Aetna from 1992 to 1996. In 1997, she served as senior research associate & senior visiting scholar at Yale Law School where she worked on the growth of terrorism.
Baird was Bill Clinton's first unsuccessful nominee for United States Attorney General in 1993. Baird withdrew her name from consideration for the position when it was learned that she had informed President Clinton that she and her husband had hired illegal immigrants to serve as her chauffeur and nanny, and neglected to pay their social security taxes. Her husband has filed sponsorship papers at the time and sought the advice of counsel on paying taxes. She paid $2,900 in fines for the infractions. The matter, dubbed "Nannygate," attracted intense public attention, and the question "Do you have a Zoë Baird problem?" became frequently asked of other political appointees, including subsequent candidates for Attorney General.
President Clinton subsequently appointed Baird to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) (1994 – 2000) , the Commission on Roles and Capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community (1995) and the G-8 Digital Opportunity Task (DOT) Force (2000-2002). In 1997, Baird served on the Department of Defense, Defense Science Board, Summer Study on Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as the New York Panel for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed Baird to the Department of Defense Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee (TAPAC) (2003-2004). Baird was also a member of the National Security Agency Advisory Board Cyber Awareness and Response Panel (2010 – 2011).
Baird has served as president of the Markle Foundation since 1998. Markle works to realize the potential of information technology to address previously intractable public problems, for the health and security of all Americans. Early in her tenure, she initiated collaborations to expand access to the Internet in developing countries and worked to ensure public representation in global Internet governance processes. Baird served on the G-8 heads of state DOT Force, which created a roadmap for developing countries’ adoption of information technology, investments of development assistance, and resources to help avoid a digital divide and to get information technology into the hands of citizens in developing countries. Baird was also a member of the Global Digital Opportunity Initiative that supported the DOT Force.
Under Baird’s leadership in the early 2000’s, Markle focused on increasing non-profit and developing country participation in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN), the Internet’s first official governance body, and making that body more accountable to all users of the Internet. Leading up to the 2000 presidential election, Baird led Markle’s efforts to design the online project,Web White & Blue. Web White & Blue was the first of its kind, non-partisan, online resource for news, debates, and other political resources that demonstrated the Internet’s critical role in enhancing individual’s relationship to the political process. The project was recognized as nominee for the 1999 Webby Awards.
Under Baird’s leadership for much of the past decade, Markle has worked to catalyze improvements in the quality and cost effectiveness of health care and reform the intelligence community to meet current threats. In 2006, Markle released the Markle Connecting for Health Common Framework for Private and Secure Health Information Exchange , which has been leveraged in policy and implementation efforts across the country and helped shaped landmark health care provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Markle Work Group on Consumer Engagement conceived the Blue Button in January 2010 as a way for individuals to get easy, secure online access to health information, enabling individuals to download their health data to improve their health and engagement in health care. The Blue Button is now in widespread use by health plans, hospitals, doctors and individuals across the United States.
Baird and former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale served as co-chairs of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. The Task Force worked to reform the way our government responds to national security threats, mobilizing information and information technology while upholding civil liberties protections. Task Force recommendations informed the 9/11 Commission Report and were enacted through executive order and legislation, including the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the Protect America Act of 2007.
She is currently leading a new effort at Markle to enhance the nation’s economic security and create a vibrant economic future for all Americans.
Baird serves on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Chubb Corporation and Boston Properties. She founded Lawyers for Children America, which represents abused and neglected children. She is a member of the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group and the Aspen Institute Strategy Group, an Advisory Board Member for the Lloyd N. Cutler Center for the Rule of Law at the Salzburg Global Seminar, Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institution and a member of its nominating committee, and Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Businessweek named her one of the “50 Top Women in Business”, she was included as a “Silicon Alley Reporter 100”, was recipient of the “Federal Computer Week Eagle Award”, was a “World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow”, and the inspiration for the Wendy Wasserstein Broadway play An American Daughter.
Personal life
Baird married William Budinger in 2010.
See also
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- Kimba Wood, Bill Clinton's second failed nominee for Attorney General
- Janet Reno, the third—successful—nominee, and United States Attorney General from 1993 until 2001
References
- Wallis, Claudia (2/22/93). "The Lessons of Nannygate." TIME
- Leadership Timeline. Markle Foundation
- Prepared Statement of James X. Dempsey Executive Director Center for Democracy & Technology before the House Committee on Government Reform, 3/10/11
- Testimony on Behalf of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 3/10/11
- Publication & Briefs (6/26/09), Comments on the Office of the National Coordinator's Preliminary Definition of 'Meaningful Use, Markle Foundation.
- Krauss, Clifford (1993-01-17). "THE NEW PRESIDENCY: Justice Department; Nominee Pays Fine for Hiring of Illegal Aliens". New York Times.
- Noble, Barbara Presley (July 3, 1994). "At Work: Solving the Zoe Baird Problem". The New York Times.
- See http://www.markle.org/our-story/markle-board-directors/94-zoe-baird-budinger